Migrants and Mediterranean cultures: an Afro-descendant actor says: “Having an Italian family helped me”

PRATO – The 28-year-old actor, Haroun Fall is an Afro-descendant, born in Turin to an Italian mother and a Senegalese father and then raised in an Italian-British adoptive family, to whom he was entrusted at the age of eight months. He talks about his journey, here in Prato, during the 2024 edition of Festival of Mediterranean cultures, “Sabir” promoted by ARCI together with Caritas Italiana, ACLI and CGIL, with the collaboration of ASGI and Carta di Roma. “Having an Italian family helped me – he said – but we have a problem of representation, and that’s why I audition out of role , to even get to roles that were not written for me in Italy – Haroun said – there are only three actors of African origin who studied at Experimental cinematography centreand I am the only Afro-descendant.”

The problem of not being recognized as citizens. The problem is that being of Afro-descendant means first of all not being citizens, because in our country, unfortunately, we are not recognized as such. Furthermore, as soon as an Afro-descendant makes a mistake, it is automatic that that mistake involves and affects everyone.” Haroun Fall traces an analysis of what it means to be a young Italian with foreign ancestry today, which has the flavor of denunciation. The actor boasts notable participations on both the big and small screen. We can see him on Mondays on Rai1 playing the role of a policeman in the series ‘Il Clandestino’, starring Edoardo Leo, while he is already working on a new project.

“The great responsibility I feel I have”. Fall, who was a guest of the Sabir to share his experience, he clarifies: “Being Afro-descendant means having a great responsibility. I based my career on this: I chose to be an activist actor when I realized that I could act from a privileged position and become a megaphone for those who have no voice.” According to the actor “in Italy we have not even reached the minimum threshold of representation of the rights of minorities, or of the minorities themselves”. Over the years, he added, “I had to understand what having African origins meant for me, through my work and my personal experiences. I understood that every misstep pays off. I therefore tried not to make mistakes, because every time an Afro-descendant makes a mistake, the tendency is to blame everyone who has the same story behind them.”